Tuesday, March 4, 2014

Is shark diving a threat to conservation efforts?

Mike Neumann lives in the tropical paradise of Fiji and scuba dives with
large bull sharks all the time. In addition to having a dream job as a
co-owner of a scubdiving company called Beqa Adventure Divers, Neumann
likes exposing people to sharks so he can help improve the image of
these misunderstood and threatened animals. “It is always inspiring to
observe the awe and exhilaration, especially of the newbies once they
realize that the sharks are nothing like the negative stereotypes,” he
says, “but instead simply awesome and beautiful!”

It's not all fun and games though. Eco tourism goes beyond the operators trying to make a living.

Neumann’s opinion about the benefits of ecotourism for shark
conservation is shared by many scuba-diving business owners in the
growing shark ecotourism industry, with more than 375 unique shark
diving businesses as of 2011 (pdf). Recent research (pdf)
suggests that these scuba business owners might be right: public
perception of sharks is important to their conservation. For instance,
Christopher Neff, a PhD student at the University of Sydney who studies
the policy implications of shark bites, says, “Laws often save or
protect what the public cares about and can punish what it doesn't.
Perception matters a lot in terms of both laws and local responses to
sharing beach ecosystems.”

Unfortunately there has been a trend in the industry to do crazier and more extreme things. Some operators don't care about the possible consequences their actions have, not only for themselves and their clients, but the rest of the industry and most important, the sharks.

A new trend in “shark riding” has shark conservationists anticipating an
accident, which would likely result in negative media coverage of
sharks and potential consequences to the industry. This risky behavior
includes riding, prodding, grabbing, excessively handling and otherwise
harassing sharks. Sharks are large, wild animals, and their behavior
can be unpredictable. So, riding or harassing activity greatly increases
the chance that someone will be injured. Such an injury could undo the
progress made by ecotourism to public perception of sharks. “These close
interactions with large predators are always dangerous,” Neumann says.
“Highly experienced people may possibly limit those risks through
adequate behavior and safety protocols, but the increasing number of
inexperienced copycats makes me fear that somebody will end up having a
bad accident.”

Now, if someone does get hurt or worse, we all know what will happen in the media. The article of course states it a lot more eloquently.

Based on his analysis of how the media covers shark bites
and a “if it bleeds, it leads” mentality, Neff thinks that if such an
accident occurred, the incident would make headlines around the world.
Nearly 20 percent of media-reported shark bites in Australia since 1979
resulted in no injury whatsoever to the human, yet the language used in
news coverage often perpetuated the misconception of sharks as mindless
killers. “The high degree of attention toward shark bites makes them
seem more frequent than they are,” Neff says. “Someone in Poland is
seeing coverage of a shark bite in Mexico and someone in Montana is
hearing stories out of Florida, so even though these events are really
rare they appear to be happening everywhere all the time—so our sense of
probability is off. The result is often more negative responses.” Neff
expressed concerns that media coverage of an accident resulting from
risky diver behavior would likely be inflammatory. Such coverage could
be damaging to the scuba industry by scaring potential customers away,
and harmful to public perception of sharks by perpetuating false
stereotypes of them as seeking out humans to eat.
So not only would the bad publicity from an accident hurt the sharks public image, but the actual act of handling the sharks could have an impact on them.

In addition to the possibility of an accident that would affect much
more than the scuba diver who was bitten, there are other concerns about
excessively touching, grabbing and riding sharks. The physiological
stress associated with this behavior is unknown, and could be
significant. Mike Neumann adds, “I hope that everybody agrees that
riding harmless species like turtles, manatees, nurse sharks, manta rays
or whale sharks is totally disrespectful and moronic, so why would
riding those predatory sharks be anything else?”

So what should we do?

Safe and responsible shark ecotourism helps correct misconceptions of
sharks for countless scuba divers. And a “look but don’t touch” policy
can help further shark conservation by combatting the broader public’s
misconceptions fueled by media coverage of shark bites and the 1975
blockbuster movie, Jaws. The growth of responsible shark-diving ecotourism (pdf) has led to a new talking point for conservation activists: that sharks can be more valuable to a local economy alive than dead.
After research showed that a live shark can be worth 94 times as much
via ecotourism than a dead shark can be worth through fishing (pdf), the Maldives banned shark fishing throughout their exclusive economic zone in the Indian Ocean.

The increase in dangerous and unnecessary thrill-seeking behavior
with sharks makes SCUBA divers, conservationists and researchers worried
that it’s only a matter of time before there’s a serious accident that
could undo all of this progress.

We at Shark Diver couldn't agree more with Mike's concerns. Our motto is "Safe and Sane" shark diving. We have been operating our shark dives for 14 years, without handling, or riding sharks. Our goal is not to portray the sharks as harmless pets, but rather as the awesome predators they are. We teach our divers to respect, but not fear our toothy friends.
Cheers,
Martin Graf
CEO
Shark Diver

About Shark Diver.
As a global leader in commercial shark diving and conservation initiatives Shark Diver has spent the past decade engaged for sharks around the world. Our blog highlights all aspects of both of these dynamic and shifting worlds. You can reach us directly at staff@sharkdiver.com.